Nick Westwood
Nick and Harry Kroto did a lot of photoelectron spectroscopy research together. One of the trickiest experiments involved obtaining the PE spectrum of CH3CP, but green fingered Nick Westwood managed it.
13 June 1946 - 28 July 2015
Nick and I used to banter together in a language that can best be described as “English School Boy”. People would join us, and simply not understand what we were saying.
One of his favourite expressions was “cum grano salis”. We would be reading a questionable paper, and he would look at me, smile and say “well Rich, I think we should take all this … cum grano salis!
Richard Oakley
Mutual friend to Sir Harry Kroto and Nick Westwood
He was one of those rare people who could light up the whole room when he entered. I can hear his voice now and those of us who knew him are specially fortunate.
Sir Harry Kroto
"My favourite which we both used all the time was: “Let’s present him with a fat accomplice”, but this may have been David Frost (at UBC in 1974) discussing presenting McDowell with a proposition! This may have initiated Nick’s inventiveness at one liners.
"I think I shall write an article entitled Deus ex Machina (using Nick’s one liner) which sums up the terrible situation today in which poor scientists think they have discovered something on the basis of poor theory. Examples are pentagraphene and carbyne, and they even get the rubbish published!"
'Harry Kroto gets hot under the collar on the subject of so-called carbyne', Chemistry World, 28 October 2010.
'Carbyne's list of amazing properties grows', IEEE Spectrum, 30 July 2014.
'Penta-graphene: A new carbon allotrope', PNAS, 24 February 2015.